Monday = Year One Class for Me!

(Ms. Luskin)

On this somewhat grey day, I was amazed to find myself among the faculty early-birds awaiting the outdoor opening-ceremonies for the week. It's now my earnest goal that, some AFS day, I'll be first to identify the Chinese national anthem (since I've been able to listen to it so often during our stay.) Fair warning to Vizulis, Preiser and Barrett: Luskin's sharpening her ears! I've been equally amazed to find that the teachers behave as casually as the students do during this ceremony: while we all stand in our formal lines facing toward the speakers on the gym stairs, low -voiced chatter continues non-stop while an administrator or student offers (I'm certain) well-crafted advice. After the ceremony concluded, I had time to grab a bite of breakfast, since Monday's classes begin fat 8:15. My usually solo breakfast munching is warmed by Cui Hongxiang's (Helen's) cheery company today!

And the Monday round of special classes kicks off with Chinese class. We've begun Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain," a poem that my father used to recite to us when I was a kid; I expect that all the military-school guys of his era learned these martial poems. It's proved to be a heck of a challenge for our beginner Chinese abilities to keep the pronunciation, tones and meter coordinated; Gao Li is giving us lots of practice in reading aloud one after the other! But, in fact, these three stanzas are coming together as we find that practice does make (less im-) perfect!

I worked hard to be pleased that I got to speak with year-one (10th grade) English classes next, since it meant that I missed our gym class. No matter what we do in PE, it's always such a good hard workout for this old lady! Ah, well, I'll just have to make time to do something active later in the day. I discovered that I'd be meeting with Cui Hongxiang's husband's classes today; that's wonderful, actually, because it will give me a chance to get to know him a bit more. The students, though, seem so familiar, much like my 10th-grade-Algebra-II people: perky, un-jaded by upperclassman status, and full of questions! The two hours flew by, and I headed over to our lunchroom to meet up with everyone again.

I'm sure you've read the details of the weekend blog, and the changes of host sibling/family that came last week. So bittersweet to know that I'll see Eve, Penny, Raven and Mark much less, even as I soon learn to be just as fond of the new faces arrayed before me: Doris, MiaoMiao, Joe and Jerry. Maybe because Team China are experienced exchange people now, I hear less "getting-to-know-you" informative chat, and more "we're-already-comfy-together" everyday conversation! Either way, I was charmed by Cady's description of her old and new host parents discussing details of her care-and-feeding: "like I was a puppy they were adopting!" How much all these folks have learned about each other in just over two weeks!

Since I had some emails that clamored to be dealt with, I waved goodbye to the kids as they made their way to English corner after lunch. Many young folks have been heading over to meet us there, curious to know more about the people behind the faces that they see in their halls and classrooms. I'll see my American crew again before morning class tomorrow...